TV service (Cable, Dish)

[Hammer]

Hi all,

I am finally 100% sure that I am getting rid of Charter now that they decided to double bill me last month and now will not refund the 2nd charge (we are disputing it w/ our CC company). Have any of you had any luck with any of the dish companies for both TV coverage and high speed internet?

Thanks!!

Hammer

 

 

(added tag --1992)

[Paul77]

This topic seems to come up every few weeks. I did a quick search of this forum and found these most recent discussions.

 

I really HATE DishNetwork

What should I get

Issues with Charter cable

Directv pros / cons

 

I have directv and love it. I dumped cable a long time ago. Up until a few years ago I had both Dish and Directv simultaneously - I choose Directv hands down. I'm sure I probably commented as to why in one of the above linked threads.

 

As for internet, I have DSL from ATT. I live VERY close to the switching station and get great speeds. When I first got DSL I mistakenly assumed that all DSL connections were that fast, but I was wrong. Unless you can confirm that you are close enough to get good speeds, I'd go with roadrunner. I kind of felt bad because I talked up my DSL connection to friends, 3 of whom decided to follow me and make the switch only to have terrible speeds (by comparison).

[RyDogg66]

I had DISH for a while before I moved. Now that I have moved back to a home I own I am going to re-up with Dish Network. I didnt really have any problems with them

[HebrewHammer]

They all suck. You'll never be happy.

[burniebrewer]

DirecTV customer here. Never really had any problems.

[HebrewHammer]

I had DISH for a while before I moved. Now that I have moved back to a home I own I am going to re-up with Dish Network. I didnt really have any problems with them

 

But are you happy? I had DirectTV and they don't offer CBS in HD so you have to get your own antenna. They also don't have a cheap HD recorder and they don't have all the on demand that cable does.

 

But cable doesn't have the NFL station and their HD quality is lower than DirectTV's.

[Invader3K]

I think I would go nuts with the TV picture going out every time it rains with a satellite dish.

[theute19]

Invader3K[/b]]I think I would go nuts with the TV picture going out every time it rains with a satellite dish.

Not to pick on you Invader, as it seems to be a common misconception...I have had DishNetwork for over a year, in Madison, and have had 2 outages that I have noticed. None for more than 2-3 minutes. I had many more problems with my Charter cable service (not to mention the "high speed" internet connection).

 

With the big storms that rolled through the area last night (really the last week), I have yet to have miss a minute of any Brewer game that I have been watching.

[Fatter than Joey]

But are you happy?

 

I am very happy with DirectTv -- I switched over from cable then Dish and ended up with Direct.

 

It's worth mentioning here that DirectTV will have the Big 10 network. I dont have a HD TV though.

 

I think I would go nuts with the TV picture going out every time it rains with a satellite dish.

 

Not to pick on you Invader, as it seems to be a common misconception..

 

This is a misconception perpetrated by the cable companies -- I may lose my signal once a year in very extreme weather conditions. I lost my cable signal 5x as much (at least).

[davebobn]

Anyone know how much it costs to add premium channels (HBO, Showtime, etc.) on Time Warner? I'm paying a ton for digital, DVR, and Road Runner already, but I'm curious.

[Paul77]

I think I would go nuts with the TV picture going out every time it rains with a satellite dish.

That's simply not true. Thats one of the cable company myths.

 

Even with all the rain we've had recently my signal hasn't been lost for more than 10-15 seconds - combined - if that much, and when it has "gone out" it's mostly been a few seconds of pauses and skips then back to normal. It takes a lot to knock out a tv signal. And there is no "in between" or fuzzy picture, you either get a perfect picture or no picture.

 

When it rains heavily, you lost signal strength which is different from losing your tv picture. In my case on clear sunny days I get about 94% strength, when it rains (like this mornings heavy downfall) my signal strength can fall as to as far as 70% without loss of tv signal.

 

If your dish is going out every time it rains it's because you don't have a properly aligned dish.

 

When I moved a few years ago I decided to give Time Warner Cable another shot. My digital box, would freeze up on me everyday. Every "solution" I got from TWC resulted in either getting pink screen with only sound on every digital channel or no change at all. Not to mention the terrible service and the inferior picture and sound.I had more "down time" in 6 months with TWC then I've ever had with DirecTv, and I've been a Directv customer for 9 years (save for those few months of cable).

[cweber39]

20fry is right the dish does not go out as often as everyone thinks when it rains. We had an older dish and it would go out when we got very heavy rains, but it would go out for only 30 seconds or so. Now that we got the new dish from DirecTV the thing has not gone out since we got it. It also has a much better picture than cable.

[HebrewHammer]

I never had a problem with losing a picture with DirectTV.

 

As for HBO, you basically have to have it. I never did but I got it and it's amazing. You get like 13 HBO channels plus you get an HBO on demand station. This thing will have at any time 30 movies, every episode of every HBO series for the season, tons of specials and all types of random things. It's amazing. I think it's like $10.00 a month or something. It's worth it big time.

 

Too bad not all the channels are in HD though.

 

I really can't believe how slow networks and consumers have been in adopting HD. It's 100x better. It's not even close. It's like comparing DVD's to VHS. I don't even watch a whole lot of TV, mainly sports and some HBO now between things, but I love HD. What are people waiting for? The TV's are pretty cheap now (you can get a 50" DLP for like $1500.00, 0% interest for a year...smaller TV's are even cheaper) and make TV watching and especially movie watching immensely more enjoyable.

 

I know, $1500.00 isn't "cheap" but it's a worthwhile investment. This TV will last you 10 years with no picture loss. You'll need to probably get a new lamp every now and then, but that's not much. So you're in effect paying $150.00/year for something you're going to use a lot. TV, movies, video games. Hook your camera up to the TV and watch all your pictures. I output a computer to my TV so I can watch pictures and other digital content.

 

I spent $2200.00 (great deal at the time...on sale) on mine a couple years ago and it's totally worth it to this day. I don't know how I even lived before getting an HD TV. If it lasts me 10 years I'll spend $220.00/year on it. That probably comes to like 25 cents/hour to watch my TV. And really it's probably better than that. That's incredibly cheap entertainment.

[Invader3K]

Well, where I work we have Dish Network, and last night when it was storming (which granted, was a bad storm), we had all four TVs (connected to two receivers) go out for a good 15 minutes or so. It's happened before, here. I realize DISH is not DirecTV, and we have a unique setup, but it's not like I haven't seen it happen and I'm just swallowing Charter's propaganda.

 

Believe me though, I'm not trying to bash satellite...I've had a few problems with Charter at my house, and dread calling their customer non-service line, which is always a chore in itself. The main reason I use them is simply because I can get TV (with HD and DVR), high speed internet, and telephone (which I basically need for fax/business purposes) from them at a combined rate.

[FVBrewerFan]

I don't think there's a "right" or "wrong" choice. It just depends on your individual needs, and what is important to you. I may be one of the few that have Time Warner and love it. Maybe it's because I'm in the Fox Cities, but I don't think I've ever had a lost signal in 10 years. But what I like most is I can get multiple boxes (6) for no additional charge. Two HD receivers with DVR and 4 regular digital receivers. Plus I have phone service and Roadrunner packaged together at a reduced rate.

 

Basically, I like getting one bill and never expereine any problems with any of the services- including phone. But I agree if I let them nickel and dime me and make me pay full price I would give DirecTV a chance again.

[Jimbo]

Ugh! I tried one of the satellite companies and after just three months the service drove me to tears. Went back to Time Warner and have counted my blessings since.

[Paul77]

If a dish is regularly (or even semi regularly - bi-yearly even) going out for 15 minutes (!) at a crack it's probably (certainly) due to the set up. 15 minutes is a long time. I'd say the absolute longest, worst outage we've had was probably 10 or 12 minutes and that was with our old equipment and many years ago during a terrible windy, wet, snowy winter storm. Really, any outages we have are usually in the "seconds" range.

 

You do need to have your dish aligned properly. You try to move it as close to 100% as possible (Theres a meter you can access in your system menu, or you can buy a meter reader). Like I said I can get to about 94% as a "normal". When it rains heavily it drops to, say, 74%, but I don't lose picture.

 

Now if I set up my dish and it's off a little bit and my normal signal strength is only 80% I'll have problems when it rains. Instead of dropping into the 70% range (with the TV signal intact), it's in the 60% range, and I can't get a signal from that.

[RyDogg66]

But are you happy? I had DirectTV and they don't offer CBS in HD so you have to get your own antenna. They also don't have a cheap HD recorder and they don't have all the on demand that cable does.

 

But cable doesn't have the NFL station and their HD quality is lower than DirectTV's.

I think I was/am happy. Concerns about HD are so far away from my mind that I have never considered it. First, I had a 20 inch regular tube TV from college for the past 11 years, and recently got an old 27" regualr tube TV (it seems enormous) as well. For the past 12 months Ive had an antenna that got 3-4 fuzzy channels that I have paid nothing for. Im hoping that I can afford to get the Dish hooked back up by October 1.

[Paul77]

There are two things I am jealous of cable customers for:

 

Full time Fox Sports Wisconsin

On Demand Channels

 

I've learned to live without the former, but I am very envious of the On Demand content.

[GenoSeligPrieb]

I've always been very happy with DirecTV. For 5 years now.

 

And without TiVo, my life is even less meaningful than it already is. When I watch a baseball game, I'll TiVo it, and start watching it, an hour and a half after it begins. As long as no one blurts out the score, by the time I fast-forward through all the commercials, I'm back up to "live" by the 8th inning or so. Football's much worse, especially on the Sunday night NBC game, when I start watching 2 hours late. Those red flag booth reviews take up minutes of my life the NFL owes me.

[jwill535]

I have Charter right now and switching to Direct TV on Friday. I dont get outages but on my DVR box i get the blue screen of death all the time(You dont subscribe to this channel or it doesnt work). As for full time Fox Sports Wisconsin, there is nothing different except that you get Brewer games and Brewers straight up which with that you arent missing much(other then the Damian Miller Episode). I am just lookign forward to the better HD. My wife said to me the other night, "what is your obsession with HD, its not like it is all that better" after resisting the urge to slap her Rick James style, i just looked at her and said "that has to be the dumbest thing you have ever said"

[HebrewHammer]

My wife said to me the other night, "what is your obsession with HD, its not like it is all that better" after resisting the urge to slap her Rick James style, i just looked at her and said "that has to be the dumbest thing you have ever said"

 

Is she blind? I'd have her examined for blindness or insanity.

[Paul77]

And without TiVo, my life is even less meaningful than it already is. When I watch a baseball game, I'll TiVo it, and start watching it, an hour and a half after it begins. As long as no one blurts out the score, by the time I fast-forward through all the commercials, I'm back up to "live" by the 8th inning or so.

 

Yep, that's how I do it.

 

Sometimes I'm really proud of all my Tivo based "time saving tricks", like that one, but other times it makes me a little sad. Oh well.

 

At the risk of changing the subject, I like "saving" shows on my Tivo. I'll Tivo entire seasons of a show and watch it during the summer. I'm pretty good at avoiding spoilers when I want to. I have 5 episodes of last years "24" left on my Tivo, as well as every episode of this years "Shield" and I have no idea how either end.

 

To help pull this back on topic I'll add, if you do go with Directv, try to find an older DirecTivo receiver. I have a couple in my house and everyone I talk who has one says the DTivo is leap years better than the new DirecTv-DVR units.

[HebrewHammer]

At the risk of changing the subject, I like "saving" shows on my Tivo. I'll Tivo entire seasons of a show and watch it during the summer. I'm pretty good at avoiding spoilers when I want to. I have 5 episodes of last years "24" left on my Tivo, as well as every episode of this years "Shield" and I have no idea how either end.

 

What's cool about HBO on demand is that every episode of every TV series they have is always available for the latest season. So you don't even have to DVR or TiVO them. And if the season is over you can recall them at any time. It's really amazing.

[valpocrewsader]

Anyone know how much it costs to add premium channels (HBO, Showtime, etc.) on Time Warner?

I think it's $13.95 per month for the first premium station, $8.00 for each additional. I have HBO and Cinemax, the $21.95 gets me like 14 additional HBO channels (1 in HD) and maybe 9 Cinemax channels. I think Showtime would add another 10-12 channels with 1 in HD.

 

Sortof feels like a waste of money, but I decided to treat myself this year. There's lots of good movies on practically all the time, and obviously it's commercial free. Works nice when entertaining guests. I'd say it's improved my quality of life.